Biobanking initiatives to develop a national liver disease biobank facility in India.

AIM: India has a high hepatobiliary disease burden, yet very little research has been done in this field. A major roadblock in the translational research is the unavailability of quality biosamples with standardized clinical annotations. Having a national level biobank facility can circumvent the problem. The Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences being a premier liver institute, undertook the initiative to establish the national liver disease biobank.

METHODOLOGY: We conducted a survey among the potential users of biobank resources. Furthermore, a detailed proposal of the model for a national level liver disease biobank was submitted to a funding agency.

CONCLUSION: Establishment of a national biobank facility for liver disease will be a major step towards revolutionizing liver-related clinical and basic research as well as personalized medicine in India.